BirdLife recently published an article on the 6th European Grid Conference that took place in September 2016 in Brussels. Central topic was the future of the European electricity grid. Alice Collier from BirdLife refers in her article to the importance that this future needs to combine technical innovation with nature protection by means of developing new pylons that meet those requirements to protect birds and nature as a whole.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, is currently ranked as third best university worldwide in environmental sciences. In June 2015, the ETH welcomed the GRID EXPO in its impressive main building located right next to the picturesque Lake Zurich as part of the Swissgrid tour. Continue Reading →

Can local stakeholders open the discussion on grid aesthetics? Lübecker Nachrichten reports on the case of Ostholstein, where the ongoing plans of the new high voltage line encouraged a discussion on design of electricity pylons.Continue Reading →

As part of the Grid Innovations project involving the GRID EXPO and Swissgrid a first exhibition was displayed at the opening of the new Swissgrid office location in Prilly on the 9th of February. The event was attended by the energy minister of Switzerland Doris Leuthard and the Swissgrid CEO Pierre-Alain Graf as well as multiple high ranking CEO’s of energy related companies located in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Pylons do not have to look like they used to, they do not have to solely be a technical object. To change this was the mission of Hans-Jochen Hilsberg, from Germany. He designed a star shaped pylon in order to address functional and aesthetic needs of pylons in a time of transformation.

The Red Dot Award committee honoured Mr. Hilsberg for his design concept ‘star pylon’ and rewarded him with the Red Dot Award: Best of the Best for highest design quality.

That designer pylons may overcome the lack of enthusiasm for grid expansions in the German population is stated by a post of RheinEnergieBlog: This article displays those pylons that were featured by the GRID EXPO project.

Several characteristic pylon designs that are displayed by the GRID EXPO project are featured at 123energie Blog. A short overview and some impressions about those valuable models show once again that utility and art complement each other.